Airplane Crash from 1908 to 2021

Jaratsy Noriega and Chau Tran

2023-11-06

INTRODUCTION

As you know, in Texas, traffic accidents are something we witness almost every week or every day with our own eyes. However, it is not easy to witness aviation accidents and learn about them. For such a large block of metal to fly into the sky, humans must have put in a lot of effort. Therefore, we are curious what kind of impact and involvement people might have when something that big comes down.

Link for Airplane Crash and Fatalities dataset

DATA DESCRIPTION

Date: Date of accident, in the format - January 01, 2001

Operator: Airline or operator of the aircraft

AC Type: Aircraft type

Aboard: Total aboard (passengers / crew)

Passengers aboard : Passengers abroad

Crew aboard : Crew abroad

All fatalities : Total fatalities aboard (passengers / crew)

Passenger fatalities: Total Passenger fatalities

Crew fatalities: Total Crew fatalities

Ground: Total killed on the ground

Summary: Brief description of the accident and cause if known

DATA PREPARATION

When I look at the number of fatalities and the number of passenger aboard, I think that I could obtain the number of survivals by subtracting the number of fatalities from number of passengers aboard. Therefore, I subtract the values in the Fatalities column from the values in the Aboard column and then add those new values to my data set and name it Survival.

air = air %>% mutate(Survival = all_aboard - all_fatalities)

DATA EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS

Domain question:

How has our chance to survive an airplane crash or not get into a crash evolved over 113 years (1908-2021) ?

Other questions:

What are various factors contributing to airplane crashes over 113 years?

How large is our chance to survive depending on our roles on the plane ?

How much damage will be caused when an airplane crash and to what extent ? (number of death )

Is there a safe month or day to fly ?

What type of airplane is the most dangerous to fly ?

What operator is the most dangerous to fly ?

What are the most dangerous countries to fly ?

NUMBER OF PASSENGER ON BOARD AND NUMBER OF FATALITIES BY YEARS

What is the pattern of number of passenger on board and the number of fatalities over the years ?

NUMBER OF SURVIVAL AND NUMBER OF FATALITIES BY YEAR

How does the chance of survival look like over the years ?

NUMBER OF SURVIVAL AND NUMBER OF FATALITIES IN YEAR 1999

Let’s zoom in year 1999 to see why the number of survivors was greater than the number of fatalities

NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ABOARD AND NUMBER OF FATALITIES

What pattern of damage does an airplane usually cause ?

NUMBER OF SURVIVORS AND NUMBER OF FATALITIES

Let’s zoom in another perspective to see the pattern of the way an airplane crashes cost lives better!

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY YEAR

What time periods have the most crash ?

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY OPERATORS

What operators have the most crashes ?

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY TYPE

What type of airplane has the most crashes ?

THE NUMBER OF FATALITIES ON BOARD AND THE NUMBER OF FATALITIES ON GROUND BY YEAR

How does the number of fatalities on board and the number of fatalities on the ground look like over the years ?

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY MONTH

What month has the most crashes ?

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY DAY

Does the chance of getting into an airplane crash vary on different days ?

NUMBER OF CRASHES BY COUNTRY

What countries have the most airplane crashes ?

RATIO OF FATALITIES OF CREW AND RATIO OF FATALITIES OF PASSENGER BY YEAR

Does the chance of survival vary on different roles on the airplane ?

SUMMARY

Most of the time, when a plane crashed, passengers on board either mostly died or mostly survived. The survival rate of the passengers on board in 1908-2021 has been relatively low. However, deaths on the ground caused by plane crashes have almost never occurred. But once that happens, the plane crash had the potential to kill thousands of people on the ground like the 9/11 event. We also know that the three most dangerous countries to fly in are Russia, the United States, and Brazil. However, this might be suspected because those countries might have high air traffic so we cannot not conclude yet. In terms of the time of year to fly, the chances of being involved in a plane crash are fairly similar across all months and days of the year. On top of that, regardless of whether a person on a flight is a captain or a passenger, the chances of survival remain the same. The time with the most plane crashes is during the war and the type of plane involved in the most crashes (Douglas DC - 3) is the type used in the war. We have not found any commercial type of airplane that has an outstanding high number of crashes. In short, other than the time of war and the points we have not yet verified, air travel looks quite safe after 1999 to the present.